Donna was jailed for life in April 2000 after a jury found her guilty of murdering her husband Richard. Long-suffering Donna finally snapped when her partner kicked her in the head, grabbed her round the throat and held a hot iron to her face.

In defending herself, Donna stabbed him once but was jailed for life when a jury found her guilty of murder. It was a sentence she didn't deserve. It wasn't the first time Donna had suffered at her violent husband's hands and in court the mum-of-three outlined how she endured regular beatings. But the jury didn't take this into account and slapped her with a life sentence.

In a bid to see justice done Donna's family launched a fight to free her and were rewarded in December last year when the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction and replaced it with one of manslaughter.

Donna has never denied that she killed her husband but has repeatedly argued that it wasn't premeditated and that she was forced into it. At the end of the day what she did was wrong but the years of hell that Donna endured at the hands of her husband needed to be taken into account.

And at last they have and she's now free to rebuild her relationship with her children and hopefully her dead husband's family.